Export Barriers in Nigerian Agro-Industry SMEs

This report investigates the barriers to export performance faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Nigerian agro-industry. It highlights the importance of export for developing countries and examines the specific challenges faced by the agricultural sector in Nigeria. The research aims to identify these barriers and suggest ways to reduce them, ultimately contributing to the growth of the Nigerian economy. The report includes an introduction, literature review, methodology, results, and a conclusion with recommendations.

Running head: BARRIERS TO EXPORT PERFORMANCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES – STUDY OF THE NIGERIAN AGRO-INDUSTRY
Barriers to Export Performance in Developing Countries Small and Medium Enterprises – Study
of the Nigerian Agro-Industry
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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BARRIERS TO EXPORT PERFORMANCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES SMALL AND
MEDIUM ENTERPRISES – STUDY OF THE NIGERIAN AGRO-INDUSTRY
Table of Contents
Chapter One.....................................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Aims and Objective of the Research...............................................................................................1
Research Question...........................................................................................................................3
Rationale for the Research...............................................................................................................3
Research Outline..............................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................5

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BARRIERS TO EXPORT PERFORMANCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES SMALL AND
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Chapter One
Introduction
Small and medium scale enterprise play a significant role in developing countries by
helping the overcome their economic issues such as poverty, inequality, employment and others.
This shows SMEs play a vital role in the economic development of developing countries. This is
because they contribute effectively to their economic issues and factors. However, they also face
various barriers such as lack of finance, business skills and others. The barriers increases when
small and medium size enterprises are found in developing enterprises. This is because of the
financial and other barriers that are faced by developing economies (Beck & Demirguc-Kunt,
2006). According to Fiseha & Oyelana (2015), there are many developing countries that has
struggled to be a part of world trading system. Agriculture has been the most dominant sector
that has struggled to be a part of international trade. However, recently it has been seen that the
trade barriers has been reduced and offered enhanced trade performances for agricultural
products. Agricultural sector of Nigeria is always faced with issues such as lack of development,
marketing problem, unstable prices and others (Eriksson et al., 2015). Agricultural sector of
Nigeria is experiencing a lower development and growth rate over decades with an average
growth rate standing at 6 to 8 percent per year (Henson & Loader, 2001). Among all these issues
they also face barriers to exports that are impacting their trade performances. Thus, it is
beneficial to study the barriers that are faced by Nigerian agricultural sector in its exports. This is
because export is one of the crucial activities that help for the development of the economy.

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BARRIERS TO EXPORT PERFORMANCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES SMALL AND
MEDIUM ENTERPRISES – STUDY OF THE NIGERIAN AGRO-INDUSTRY
Aims and Objective of the Research
The aim of the research is to examine the barriers to export performance in the small and
medium size enterprise of Nigeria with clear indication of agricultural industry.
This shows that small and medium size enterprise in Nigeria, exporting agricultural
products are facing huge barriers and it is affecting their performance adversely. The major goal
of the paper is to understand these barriers that developing countries like Nigeria face and the
ways in which it impacts the entire economy.
Objectives of the research are as follows:
 To study the importance of export for developing countries
Knowing the importance of export in the developing countries will help understand the crucial
factor of the study area. It will help in determining the importance of conducting the research and
the ways by which it will impact the developing economies all over the world.
 To examine the export barriers faced by small and medium size enterprises of
developing countries
Export face various barriers in small and medium size enterprises in every economy, especially
in developing ones. This is because developing countries itself possess various weaknesses that
are imposed on the SMEs. This will help in understanding the overall barriers faced by export in
all kinds of industries.
 To investigate into the barriers that are faced by the agricultural sector of Nigeria

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BARRIERS TO EXPORT PERFORMANCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES SMALL AND
MEDIUM ENTERPRISES – STUDY OF THE NIGERIAN AGRO-INDUSTRY
This is the major portion of the research as it will examine the actual research areas that is the
agricultural sector of Nigeria and the barriers they are facing while exporting their products. This
is the most crucial part as the entire paper will be focused majorly on Nigerian economy.
 To suggest ways in which the export barriers can be reduced in agricultural sector
of Nigeria
This the final section of the research as it will help in suggesting ways by which the investigated
barriers can be reduced in the agricultural sector of Nigeria. This section of the research will
offer growth incentive to the Nigerian economy by enabling them to effectively eliminate the
export barriers faced by the most dominant sector of the economy.
Research Question
What are the barriers to export performances that SMEs of agricultural industry in Nigeria face
over the years?
Rationale for the Research
The paper aims to explain the importance that export performances hold for developing
countries like Nigeria, especially when it is about its most dominant and important sector like
agriculture. Agriculture formed a dominant sector of Nigerian economy in 1950s and 1960s
when the total contribution of the sector to export was 60 to 70 percent. However, by 1996 the
agricultural export was only 2 percent of the total export in the country (Daramola et al., 2007).
This was a critical situation for the economy as the economy started to import some of the
agricultural goods. Thus, this situation made it important to study the reason behind such fall in
agricultural export and their performances. Further, the research will help not only the

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BARRIERS TO EXPORT PERFORMANCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES SMALL AND
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agriculture sector of Nigeria, it will also help agricultural sector of other developing countries on
the barriers they might face in export and the ways to deal with it effectively.
Research Outline
This section suggests the structure of the paper on which the entire research was based.
The paper is divided into different chapters that gives a systematic method to achieve the roles
and objectives of the research. Chapter one is the introduction part that offers a description and
purpose of the research is has been conducted. Chapter two is literature review that is formed
after analyzing and studying past literature on the topic. Chapter three is the most important part
of the paper that states the methodology that the researcher used to collect the data for the study
and the ways it used to analyze the data for final result. This chapter is followed by chapter for
which is the results and discussion chapter showing all the possible outcome of the primary
research conducted. The last chapter is the conclusion chapter along with some recommendations
if needed as it finalizes the actual outcome of the research based on the objectives.
Conclusion
To conclude the section it can be said that the research will be of great importance to
Nigerian economy and will contribute effectively to its growth prospects by improving on export
barriers.

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BARRIERS TO EXPORT PERFORMANCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES SMALL AND
MEDIUM ENTERPRISES – STUDY OF THE NIGERIAN AGRO-INDUSTRY
References
Beck, T., & Demirguc-Kunt, A. (2006). Small and medium-size enterprises: Access to finance as
a growth constraint. Journal of Banking & finance, 30(11), 2931-2943.
Daramola, A., Ehui, S., Ukeje, E., & McIntire, J. (2007). Agricultural export potential in
Nigeria. Economic Policy Options for a Prosperous Nigeria, Collier, P. and C. Pattillo
(Eds.). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Fiseha, G. G., & Oyelana, A. A. (2015). An Assessment of the Roles of Small and Medium
Enterprises (SMEs) in the Local Economic Development (LED) in South Africa. Journal
of Economics, 6(3), 280-290.
Henson, S., & Loader, R. (2001). Barriers to agricultural exports from developing countries: the
role of sanitary and phytosanitary requirements. World development, 29(1), 85-102.